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F1: Fisichella stuns F1 with pole for Force India

By Andy Darley

Saturday, August 29th, 2009

The rain stayed away from Spa during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix – but it made no difference as the grid was turned on its head anyway, with Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella taking a shocking pole position.

Giancarlo Fisichella: rather happy, if somewhat surprised

“It’s unbelievable – I didn’t expect pole position,” he said. “It is fantastic, I am so happy – I didn’t expect that result so I am really happy and looking forward to tomorrow.”

Team-mate Adrian Sutil just missed the final qualifying session, setting the 11th-best time, but Fisichella was joined at the front by the BMWs and Toyotas, two teams that have struggled in qualifying more often than they have shone this year.

Toyota’s Jarno Trulli made it an all-Italian front row, while BMW’s Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica were third and fifth. Trulli’s team-mate Timo Glock was seventh, behind Kimi Raikkonen for Ferrari.

A puzzled Trulli said: “It’s a mystery. We haven’t done anything on the car compared to the last few races and suddenly here we are competitive.”

Of the championship contenders, only the newly-resurgent Rubens Barrichello posted any sort of competitive performance. He will start fourth, well ahead of the Red Bull pair of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in eighth and ninth.

The top ten was rounded out by Williams’ Nico Rosberg, which meant there was no room in the final qualifying session for championship leader Jenson Button or McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton. The pair were the slowest of the qualifiers from Q1 and did not shine in the second session, bracketing Fernando Alonso to take the 12th and 14th slots ahead of Heikki Kovalainen.

Button suffered on soft tyres, his team failing to heed the lesson of Fisichella’s fast runs on the harder compound: “I didn’t have any pace on the soft tyres and, every time I hit the brakes, the rear would move. I didn’t have any confidence in the rear end.

“It’s strange to be four or five tenths off Rubens – our cars are different, but they are not that different. It is pretty disastrous for tomorrow really.”

Hamilton, whose expectations had been lower, was less disappointed: “We did the best job we could today. We expected that we wouldn’t have as good an aero package as some of the others, we just didn’t know to what extent. I guess today we found out.

“We’d always known the car would struggle in the mid-sector corners and being one second down in the mid-sector shows the true downforce level of our car.

“But I’m not too disappointed. This year has been a rollercoaster ride for everyone, but I’m enjoying it still and I love driving this track. My plan for tomorrow is a points finish.”

Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari of Toro Rosso were unfortunate to be dumped out of contention for Q2 in the final moments of the first session by Alonso and Kubica, but will still start ahead of Kazuki Nakajima and Romain Grosjean.

Luca Badoer was slowest for Ferrari, spinning off the track at the end of Q1. Rumours that he might be replaced for Ferrari’s home race at Monza by Fisichella can only be encouraged by the outcome of today’s remarkable qualifying.

Belgian Grand Prix grid positions

Times show the fastest lap in the last session completed.

Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India: 1.46.308 (Q1) 648kg

Jarno Trulli, Toyota: 1.46.395 (Q1) 656.5kg

Nick Heidfeld, BMW: 1.46.500 (Q1) 655kg

Rubens Barrichello, Brawn GP: 1.46.513 (Q1) 644.5kg

Robert Kubica, BMW: 1.46.586 (Q1) 649kg

Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari: 1.46.633 (Q1) 655kg

Timo Glock, Toyota: 1.46.677 (Q1) 648.5kg

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull: 1.46.761 (Q1) 662.5kg

Mark Webber, Red Bull: 1.46.788 (Q1) 658kg

Nico Rosberg, Williams: 1.47.362 (Q1) 670kg

Adrian Sutil, Force India: 1.45.119 (Q2) 678.5kg

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren: 1.45.122 (Q2) 693.5kg

Fernando Alonso, Renault: 1.45.136 (Q2) 684.4kg

Jenson Button, Brawn GP: 1.45.251 (Q2) 694.2kg

Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren: 1.45.259 (Q2) 697kg

Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso: 1.45.951 (Q3) 685kg

Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso: 1.46.032 (Q3) 704.5kg

Kazuki Nakajima, Williams: 1.46.307 (Q3) 706.1kg

Romain Grosjean, Renault: 1.46.359 (Q3) 704.7kg

Luca Badoer, Ferrari: 1.46.957 (Q3) 691.5kg

Author: Andy Darley. Ex-journalist, fan of Mark Webber and anyone who ever drove or tested for Minardi and didn't say rude things about the team afterwards. Owns a Triumph Spitfire and hopes that, one day, it'll be on the road again.
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